2205. Hogs.—Food.—If pumpkins, roots, apples, or any of them be fed to fattening hogs with corn, the advantage will be salutary. Most of the food for swine should be cooked. Swine fatten much faster on fermented, than on unfermented food. Salt, charcoal, and once in a while sulphur, are excellent for hogs under all circumstances.
Good Medicine.—When your hogs get sick, you know not of what, give them ears of corn, first dipped in tar, and then rolled in sulphur.
2206. Bees.—(See [p. 176]).—Every farmer should keep bees; a few swarms to furnish honey for his own use, if no more. They toil with unremitting industry, asking but a full sweep of the wing, and no monopoly. Every man, in either town or country, can keep bees to advantage.
2207. Care of Bees in Winter.—A cold, dry, dark room, is the best winter-quarters for bees. They will consume less honey than if left on their summer stands, and will not be weakened by the loss of thousands, which, tempted out by the premature warmth, are caught by the cold winds, fall to the ground, and never rise again.
2208. "Never kill a bee."—The smoke of the fungus maximus, or common puff ball, when dried so as to hold fire, has a stupefying effect on the bees, and renders them as harmless as brimstone does, without any of its deadly effects.